Listening to instrumental Peter Gabriel - in world music mode - was quite a departure from his last album So (1986) which was almost pure pop. It wasn't very hard to learn to like it, though. Gabriel has always been very good at writing catchy melodies, regardless of genre, and to add ethnic flavor to the mix only made the end result more interesting. It is Accomplished, embedded above, is my favorite track on the album and as its title implies, it is placed near the end of both album and film.
The other release that relates to this exceptionally romantic period in my life, out on 20 June, is a new album by Yes... except it isn't called that. Original member Chris Squire had the strongest claim to the band name. Since he was not a member of its current incarnation, the group as well as their album had to be called Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe. Long time drummer Alan White was, along with Squire, working with the Trevor Rabin version of Yes, but they wouldn't come out with a new album until 1991, by which time the two groups would join forces anyway.
Embedded above is the stunningly beautiful The Meeting. There are several other songs on the album also worth listening to, like Themes, Birthright and Quartet. Most importantly, Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe sounded like the group had found genuine inspiration in their songwriting. Even though the end result was slightly uneven and hardly on par with 1987's Big Generator, it was still an encouraging release.
Exactly one month later, my summer romance was over and it was time to really, really kick ass. The Californian hard rock group Faith No More that would go on to become one of the most significant acts of the nineties, released already their third album on 20 July. They had let their original singer go, and joining the group on The Real Thing was Mike Patton - one of the true geniuses of the era. On this album, his voice sounds a bit juvenile; this would change on future releases. The music itself was absolutely stunning, even though the group hadn't even reached their full maturity yet.
The Real Thing contains several favorites. Epic was a considerable hit as a single. Other excellent songs that you should be able to find as music videos in YouTube are the fun filled opening track From out of Nowhere as well as the more menacing Surprise! You're Dead! But as much as I liked those songs, my two biggest favorites on the album are longer tracks called Zombie Eaters (the title seems to have nothing to do with song content) and the title track, embedded above.
Zombie Eaters is an outstanding hard rock piece that perhaps best describes the type of music that Faith No More would go on recording during the next decade. But to me, the centerpiece of the album was always the long and challenging title track that I would argue even carries progressive rock influences. Just pay attention to the structure. This was obviously Patton's handiwork. The man has always really enjoyed experimenting, and would do so during the nineties both under Faith No More moniker as well as others, e.g. Mr. Bungle.
21 August brings us yet another simply perfect eighties pop song. Run Silent Run Deep by Shakespear's Sister, embedded above, is taken from the British duo's debut album Sacred Heart and was released as its third single. That release didn't take place until October: their summer hit was the much more mediocre You're History. But the real kicker on the album was this track named after the submarine movie. The video above played a lot on satellite channels at the time. Siobhan Fahey is almost unbearably beautiful in it.
29 August saw the release of the first single from Depeche Mode's forthcoming new album Violator. Strangely enough, that album wouldn't be out until March 1990 which meant that Personal Jesus came out well over six months before it. The song was of course an instant classic and promised great things from the future release. Let's embed it below and discuss Violator at more length when its time comes - in the blog entry after next.
With its catchy, easily hummable tune, Personal Jesus was an instant hit on the satellite channels. I remember Sky Channel playing it constantly. What I cannot remember is if at the time it was thought to be a stand alone, non-album release like Shake the Disease four years earlier, or if there was already some knowledge about the forthcoming new album where it would be included. Great song, in any case, and easily one of the year's best.
8 September. Pump, arguably the peak album by American rockers Aerosmith was released. This would have been my chance to embed yet another early music video directed by hotshot Hollywood film director David Fincher; at the time and for a long time afterwards my favorite song on the album was the memorable and powerful Janie's Got a Gun. A rock song with a message, story-wise reminiscent of that other song where Fincher took video directing duties: Oh Father, by Madonna.
However, during more recent years I have come to realize that the song with more lasting power is actually Love in an Elevator, the absolute best straightforward rock song of the year and one of the best ever. There is something irresistible about it, even though I am not usually a big fan of simple rock and roll. This one moves like a freight train. Instead of Fincher, the video was directed by the group's long time collaborator Marty Callner. He is the man behind an earlier embedding Still of the Night by Whitesnake as well as the video for the hit song Alone by Heart.
The header of this blog entry says summer - we extend the definition of summer all the way to the end of September when two noteworthy albums came out on the same date. 25 September was the release date of the first album by the new incarnation of Marillion, called Seasons End. Overall, it was their fifth studio release but the first one where original singer Fish had been replaced with Steve Hogarth of The Europeans fame.
All in all, it was a pretty good album. It wasn't anywhere near Misplaced Childhood level, but there were only a few weak songs and the best ones were really good, like the title track. Embedded above, it felt like an instant classic. So, while I felt that I would have preferred Fish to continue his singing in the group, I thought the quality of their songwriting was still on a fully acceptable level. This impression would remain the same for the next couple of albums which were also good, but problems were to be encountered later on.
The other album released on the same date with Seasons End was Tears for Fears' follow up to their mega success Songs from the Big Chair (1985) called The Seeds of Love. Not surprisingly, it didn't live up to the expectations set by its predecessor. In fact, I wouldn't even call it a particularly good album, yet there were a couple of individual songs on it worth mentioning. Hence the album's inclusion here. Neither one of these good songs was, of course, the first single and the album's best known track Sowing the Seeds of Love.
One of them was released as the album's second single in November: the album opener Woman in Chains. I think there would have been a music video to it, but still, I had to embed Swords and Knives which is easily the best song in this collection. And with that, we conclude the summer of 1989 and will discuss October to December in the next blog entry.
